Archive of

Lost

Lost

Where am I going, what am I now?
What is coming, where does it go?
Direction, purpose, unknown
Holding on to what little I've got
Looking for someone to help me through
Turned the wrong way too many times
I'm so afraid, I can't find the path

Who can hold me, show me what's right
Gone wrong in so many ways
Can it change?  Will it change?
Lost is deep thought, is the cause lost?
Why am I here?  Where can I go?
My Direction and purpose are unknown

Ca I give what I've got or do I have what you want?
Am I in a fog of hopeless cause?
Or will it rise so I can't hide?
Direction uncertain, purpose unknown

Blowing in the jet stream of a nuclear age
A number in memory in a computer bank
Being crushed by the weight of the technological race
Somehow I wonder, will it ever change?
What will I become in this modern craze?


9/30/1983

My Organizational System (GTD)

So I've slowly been evolving my organizational system to help me in (my version of) Getting Things Done (GTD).  This post is about where I've been, where I'm at, and where I'm going with it…

So way back in 1994/5 I started using EccoPro personal information manager.  I used this for several years and absolutely LOVED it.  It did calendaring, todo's and notepads.  For me this application was absolutely killer because the notpads used an outlining structure which was fantastic for me because I tend to think in outline from (as many others likely do too).  Thus I could easily transfer my mental organization to paper/electronic form.  Bear in mind this is pre-cellphones/SMS as well as the pre-web days.  Unfortunately development of it was dropped and the product effectively whithered away.  Oh no!  I held on as long as I could and continued to use it, but eventually it became a hassle to try to maintain on newer versions of Windows.  Go read the above linked Wikipedia article for the full scoop.  Actually it still lives, but progress is glacial.

In the year 2000 I broke down and bought a Palm IIIx organizer for the then lofty price of about $180.  This was huge for me as it was lots of money at the time (actually, it still is!), but was easily the lowest price I had seen it at.  I really wanted a Palm device well before that, but it I couldn't justify the cost until it came down in price.  And then they kept coming out with new models of course, but when the IIIx came out it was the right combination of features (mostly memory) and price.  Actually the price went back up over $200 after I bought mine, thus I was quite happy to have bought it when I did.

With my new wonder toy I imported my contacts from EccoPro, gained portable calendar alarms and began to conduct my life with the Palm memo pads replacing the the outlining notes I had previously kept.  I missed the nested listing that EccoPro's outlining provided, but I learned to adapt by breaking things into smaller pieces and keeping them in separate topics as necessary.  Plus, with third-party applications I gained secure password storage and a gas mileage tracker.  The notepad situation was not ideal, but it worked for most everything else I was doing, so life went on.  …more